[Sidenote: Ver. 28.] =For we reckon,[42]= we conclude, we gather up our facts and reasons thus, =that man is justified[43] by faith, apart from,= irrespective of, =works of law.= In other words, the meriting cause lies wholly in Christ, and wholly outside the man's conduct. We have seen, implicitly, in the passage above, verses 10-18, what is meant here by "_works of Law_," or by "_works of the Law_." The thought is not of ritual prescription, but of moral rule. The law-breakers of verses 10-18 are men who commit violent deeds, and speak foul words, and fail to do what is good. The law-keeper, by consequence, is the man whose conduct in such respects is right, negatively and positively. And the "_works of the law_" are such deeds accordingly. So here "_we conclude_" that the justification of fallen man takes place, as to the merit which procures it, irrespective of his well-doing. It is respective only of Christ, as to merit; it has to do only, as to personal reception, with the acceptance of the meriting Christ, that is to say with faith in Him.
Then come, like a short "coda" following a full musical cadence, two brief questions and their answers, spoken almost as if again a Rabbinist were in discussion.
[Sidenote: Ver. 29.] =Is God the Jews' God only? Not of the Nations too? Yes, of the Nations too;= [Sidenote: Ver. 30.] =assuming (εἴπερ) that God is one,= the same Person in both cases; =who will justify Circumcision on the principle of faith, and Uncircumcision by means of faith.= He takes the fact, now ascertained, that faith, still faith, that is to say Christ received, is the condition to justification for all mankind; and he reasons back to the fact (so amply "attested by the Law and the Prophets," from Genesis onwards) that the true God is equally the God of all. Probably the deep inference is suggested that the fence of privilege drawn for ages round Israel was meant ultimately for the whole world's blessing, and not to hold Israel in a selfish isolation.
[Sidenote: Ver. 31.] =We cancel Law, then, by this faith of ours (διὰ τῆς πίστεως)?= We open the door, then, to moral licence? We abolish code and precept, then, when we ask not for conduct, but for faith? =Away with the thought; nay, we establish Law;= we go the very way to give a new sacredness to its every command, and to disclose a new power for the fulfilment of them all. But how this is, and is to be, the later argument is to shew.